I work full time and use a motorized chair and take Paratransit services to and from work on a standing order which picks me up at 8:30am and 5:00pm.  Beyond that, I use the bus since the bus stop is two to three blocks away.  The story changes on the weekend when I have to attend events or have activities outside the city, but still using paratransit.  Then, just when I think I can relax from work and recreate, I experience the worst abuse by transit providers when I’m sometimes left waiting on a ride for 2 or 3 hours!  This is unacceptable and definitely calls for transit options.  

Currently, Access Services supposedly offers rescue rides for people stranded especially in LA’s suburbs, exposed to the extreme temperatures or in the city exposed to the urban frenzy.  But the Access Services Operations Monitoring Center supposedly providing rescue vehicles has significantly deteriorated and at best only becomes a redirect service, meaning, the stranded caller, instead of being assigned a rescue vehicle, is just redirected to the original Access Services contractor which stranded him or her, to rebook a replacement ride always an hour or so later, adding more aggravation to the poor rider.  Again, we sometimes are made to wait for hours even for the replacement rides!  

Measure M should provide for funds for rescue rides to an independent company apart from Access Services.  This is important because if funds are given to the same inefficient operation, consumers don’t see real service improvement. Also there should also be more sufficient funding for taxi vouchers for low income seniors and disabled.  

Measure M should also provide same day service!  Disability is the only reason we cannot get same day rides and that is discriminatory!  People forget that we have lives too and that things come up that require immediate transit.  In the early days of Access Services, we had same day service.  I remember my Mom calling me at 2 AM to say that my Grandmom just died. Because of same day service available at that time, I was able to get a ride in less than 45 minutes to see my Grandmother goodbye before the funeral parlor took her away for embalming.  Non disabled people have most transit options 24/7 but not us with disabilities!!! 

Measure M should also provide ADA Gap services.  There are areas not covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.  And these are areas short of the mile-and-a-half-from -the-closest-bus -stop requirement to qualify for paratransit services.  Currently, the disabled who live beyond this line have no transit options except the expensive cabs.  Measure M should start ADA GAP SERVICES for seniors and people with disabilities!

Another big area to look at is the taxi industry and its ADA compliance.  Measure M should give taxis a stronger push to expand their disability services.  In LA for example, while it is getting relatively easier to get accessible cabs in the mid morning hours, it gets very hard in the afternoon and at night.  

So, to sum it up.  Measure M should see to the following: 

A)  the significant expansion of paratransit services and their continuing improvement.

B)  the set up of independent accessible transit rescue services for stranded disabled and senior riders.

C)  set up ADA GAP SERVICES to provide transportation to the disabled and seniors living outside the mile and a half to the closest bus stop paratransit area.

D)  the expansion of accessible and affordable taxi services and more funding for taxi vouchers.

Measure M is all about transit as a civil right, the freedom to move about which is key to the freedom of assembly which is still key.  The freedom to petition your government ultimately, the freedom to vote!

Written by:

Lillibeth Navarro

October 15, 2016

Richard Devylder mentored me for two years when we were first getting started with Communities Actively Living Independent & Free (CALIF—the independent living center that serves the Central LA area of 50 zip codes) in 2001. He was assigned by the Department of Rehabilitation to guide me into learning the rudiments of agency management. I was a rabid activist and street fighter and he was the smooth and straight talker who knew the secrets of government bureaucracy. We had two different styles—I was touchy-feely, he was bottom line, I was the bleeding heart, he was the tough leader. We clashed occasionally but I trusted him and when I did, he never took my complaints personally—his “hand” on me was steady and I mostly followed his bidding because I felt he also respected my own instincts for success. When his mentoring was over after two years, he would still occasionally check on us and I would update him. Then we both became too busy. He went to Sacramento as head of the Independent Living Section of Department of Rehabilitation and I was more determined to succeed to show him that what he taught me was working. Then, in a dizzying speed of events, he attained the highest honor as special adviser to the President of the United States in the area of Emergency Management for people with disabilities. I felt very proud of him.

Last year in June at the Strategic Planning of the California Commission on Disability Access, we worked together for two days. This time, he had a personal care attendant consistently with him and he told me about the accident when after an airplane ride, his power wheelchair exploded and sent him flying in the air. His neck was badly hurt and severely affected his independent functioning. I got worried for him for a moment but was sure that he would recover fully. For the 25th Anniversary of the ADA, we honored him as one of our ADA Heroes and placed his picture with the others on a huge banner. I meant to call him and send him his certificate, especially after I heard that he had moved back to Southern California. And then the news came that he had died. I was shocked and immediately saddened. But he just barely retired, I protested! So I made definite plans to attend his services, also to finally meet the mother he was utterly devoted to and his sister and the rest of the family.

When I finally made it to the funeral home, I looked at his beautiful face and thanked him for his mentoring. I begged him to remind me of the lessons he shared with me. “CALIF is now on its 14th year!” I told him thinking too that he had a lot to do with that. He taught me to be tough minded and resolute, modeling to me how to consistently carry an even tone of voice no matter what was going on. I contemplated on his peacefulness due to a life well lived and in order. He was a man who achieved all his goals, including his dream of having a home by the oceanfront and retiring by the beach. At 46, he was done! Looking at him one last time to say goodbye, a thought came to mind. Richard born without arms and legs, was the Lord’s particular gift; he did not need them for he was destined to operate and impact the world like a cannon or a bullet—all body, without arms and legs but always causing a major explosion, and in this case, positive change!

Lillibeth Navarro

CALIF Executive Director

August 14, 2015